This is Part 5 in this series on Millennial leaders.  The reader is encouraged to read the introductory blog before reading what follows below.

4.  The people of God are looking for a champion. I Samuel 17.25

Armies advance against Israel. Israel’s leaders in battle array but not in battle. A champion advances from the enemy camp. No champion is found among the people of God. But still the people look. And they hope. Enter David.

David is young and inexperienced. “Too young” and “too inexperienced” to be a champion, most leaders say. “He’s unproven.”

David’s elders even find fault with him for daring to come to the front line of the battle. From their tents, not the front lines, they say David is too young not only to lead the fight, but he is too young to             even know how to fight. His place is tending sheep out back and carrying water for the real leaders.

But while others adorn themselves in their public leader clothes and publicly led (or don’t), David has spent his days preparing for just this moment.

Yes, he has carried the bread, water and cheese to the soldiers – and so learned vision,                                                 mission, dependability.

Yes, he has tended the sheep on faraway hills – and so learned patience, diligence and focus.

And, yes, he has even fought – and defeated – lions and bears, learning to trust in God and that                                     anything is possible when trust is in place.

It’s not that David is unproven. Time and time again, he has proven who he is. It’s just that his leadership is untried.

But Saul recognizes David’s character and David’s call. Saul recognizes that present leadership is not able to win the day. A champion is needed. Saul puts David in the game.

Maybe it’s time to admit that what we are doing has been tried and has been proven to not work.

Maybe it’s time to try the untried, those who have proven their character and their call, those who are ready to step in when a champion is needed.

Maybe it’s time to put David in the game, however young he may be.

United Kingdom. 18^th Century. The giant of slavery was the law of the land. There was no champion to challenge it until William Wilberforce, follower of Jesus Christ, forged a national revolution against this giant and defeated it. He was 28 years of age when he took on this Goliath.

Alexander the Great had conquered the known world by the time he was 33 years old.

Joan of Arc led a national revolution in France when still in her teens.

William Pitt the Younger became Prime Minister of Great Britain at 24 years of age and distinguished himself during a very turbulent period in Europe that included the French Revolution.

Thomas Jefferson was 33 years of age when he was the principal writer of the US Declaration of             Independence, working with older and more established leaders like John Adams (41 years old at the time), and Benjamin Franklin (70 years old).

Lillian Trasher sailed from the US to Egypt at 23 years of age and began the largest orphanage work in the world up to that time.

Billy Graham was 31 years old when his evangelistic ministry went national in impact.

Martin Luther King Jr. was 26 years of age when he began to lead a national fight against racism.

Albert Mohler, Jr. was appointed president of Southern Seminary in 1993. Many evangelical leader credit Mohler as the leader of the movement that pulled the Southern Baptist Convention back from a theologically liberal trajectory. Mohler was 33 years old when he assumed the presidency.

The people of God are looking for a champion.

It’s time to put David in the game.